Matadors Host UC Riverside in Pivotal Big West Contest

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NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---With just five games left in the regular season, CSUN Men's Basketball returns home to face UC Riverside on Wednesday evening on The Blacktop @ The Matadome. Tip off is slated for 7 p.m. and the game will air on ESPN3. An audio only broadcast will also be available on the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health with Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister on the call.

The Matadors are coming down the home stretch of the Big West season looking to secure a spot in the eight-team Big West Tournament in March. CSUN is tied with Cal Poly for seventh place in the Big West standings with 3-8 records. Heading into Wednesday, ninth-place UC Riverside is only 1.5 games behind CSUN and Cal Poly for the eight spot. The Matadors currently own the tiebreaker over Cal Poly and UC Riverside by virtue of head-to-head victories earlier this season. Spots one through six in the conference include UC Santa Barbara (8-2), UC Irvine (8-3), UC Davis (7-4), Cal State Fullerton (7-4), Long Beach State (7-4) and Hawai'i (4-6).

For the first time since 1998, CSUN earned a victory in Honolulu as the Matadors handed Hawai'i a 77-71 defeat on Saturday. After shooting a season-low 27.5 percent against the Rainbow Warriors on Jan. 6, the Matadors shot a season-high 65.1 percent in the victory including shooting 7-of-15 (46.7 percent) from the 3-point arc. Falling behind 16-9 in the first half, CSUN would take the lead at 30-29 on a jumper from senior Micheal Warren and never look back. The Matadors led by as many as 16 points in the game and never trailed in the second half.

Senior Tavrion Dawson scored 22 points on 11-of-16 shooting in the win over Hawai'i to go along with three rebounds and three assists. Warren also scored 22 points, and hit 7-of-7 from the free throw line and 3-of-6 from beyond the 3-point arc. Freshman Terrell Gomez added 16 points and four rebounds while he knocked down 4-of-6 from downtown.

In the Big West, Dawson is fifth in points per game (16.4), sixth in minutes per game (32.5) and seventh in rebounds per game (6.6). Gomez has moved up to first in the conference in 3-point percentage (46.8) as he continues to lead the league in minutes (33.9). Shooting a career-high mark from the charity stripe, Warren is third in the league in free throw percentage (84.7) while he is seventh in steals per game (1.3) and ninth in rebounds per game (6.0). As a team, the Matadors are second in the conference in points allowed per game during league play (67.8).

CSUN is 42-35 against UC Riverside all time and has won the last four meetings in the series. The Matadors defeated the Highlanders earlier this season at the SRC Arena behind 18 points and 11 rebounds from Dawson. CSUN's forward also reached 1,000 career points in the victory and posted one of his five double-doubles this season in the game. Despite the Matadors' recent success against the Highlanders, CSUN has dropped four of its last six meetings at The Matadome. The Matadors seek a season sweep of the Highlanders for the second-straight season. The last time CSUN swept UCR in back-to-back seasons was in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 campaigns.

On Wednesday, CSUN will play its sixth game on ESPN3 already this season. Last week, the Big West announced that the Matadors' game against UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, Feb. 24 was selected as an ESPN3 game, making it nine ESPN3 broadcasts featuring the Matadors this season. On Saturday, the Matadors' visit to Cal State Fullerton will air on the network as will CSUN's return meeting with the Titans on Feb. 28.

A Closer Look at UC Riverside
The Highlanders are 6-18 this season and 1-9 in Big West play. After dropping its first eight games to start conference play, UC Riverside earned its first Big West victory last Wednesday at Hawai'i (64-60) but fell to UC Irvine at home (62-52) on Saturday.

Returning to the lineup on Saturday after missing six-straight games, sophomore Dikymbe Martin leads the team in points per game (13.0) and is tied with Gomez for the league lead in 3-point percentage (46.8). Senior Chance Murray is tops on the team in assists per game (3.8) to go with 11.1 points. Fellow senior Alex Larsson is averaging a team-best 5.8 rebounds along with 10.0 points. As a team, the Highlanders hold opponents to a Big West best 32.4 3-point percentage along with a second-best 40.6 field goal percentage.

Matadors Host UC Riverside in Pivotal Big West Contest

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Players Mentioned

Tavrion Dawson

Terrell Gomez

Micheal Warren